South African Airways is Latest Airline to Fly a Route Using Biofuels

Tshepiso Mokhema, Bloomberg

- Jul 17, 2016 3:00 pm

Skift Take

Nothing about an airplane is sustainable, so we’re all for airlines testing biofuels to become more eco-friendly. But in many cases biofuels aren’t any cheaper than gasoline, and especially with South African Airway’s current state of affairs we’d be surprised to see it meet its biofuels goal by 2022.

— Dan Peltier

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South African Airways completed a flight using jet fuel made from a tobacco plant, its first contribution to the global push to power more air journeys from renewable resources.

SAA used 6,300 liters of bio jet fuel for the one-way trip to Cape Town from Johannesburg, the state-owned carrier said on Friday. The initiative was carried out in conjunction with plane maker Boeing Co. and jet-fuel producer SkyNRG.

SAA’s maiden biofuels flight comes as it battles insolvency and relies on government-guaranteed loans to survive. Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan on Thursday asked parliament to grant an extension for the tabling of SAA’s financials for the year ending March 2015, which are now a year overdue, as the Treasury considers whether to grant further support.

Airlines are examining ways to power more flights from biofuels to limit the environmental impact of aviation and ease dependency on oil. Unprofitable SAA aims to have used 20 million liters of bio-jet fuel by the fourth quarter of 2017, Ian Cruickshank, its head of environmental affairs, told reporters in Cape Town. He said the company is seeking to use 500 million liters by the same time in 2023.

This article was written by Tshepiso Mokhema from Bloomberg and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.

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